Saudi Arabia's biotechnology market is expanding at an annual rate of 13.5%, a pace that is strengthening its appeal to investors from inside and outside the Kingdom and supporting wider expansion in specialized biotech investment, according to Dr. Huda Al-Fardous, who spoke on the sidelines of the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit 2026.
Al-Fardous said investment in the sector is expected to generate 11,000 jobs by 2030, attributing the momentum to a growing pool of graduates from the Kingdom's scholarship programs and local universities, which she said is encouraging the establishment of specialized biotech companies. She added that Saudiization in the field will be realized through intellectual property developed by Saudi talent, whether in the form of company ventures or academic research.
She pointed to the presence of national talent working in factories inside the Kingdom, alongside government-allocated land and zones designated to host manufacturing facilities, as factors that reinforce local production. «When we begin manufacturing in the Kingdom, we will have effectively achieved the Saudiization target, because manufacturing takes place inside the country, the employees are citizens, and the intellectual property for the idea is Saudi, owned and registered within the Kingdom,» she said.
Al-Fardous, described as the first Saudi woman in genomic medicine, also highlighted the role of universities that have dedicated and hosted research facilities, calling on commercial biotech companies to make use of these laboratories, which she said operate according to required standards. On the protection of genetic data, she said government regulations and oversight procedures ensure that data does not leave the Kingdom, noting that all genetic analyses, data and samples belonging to citizens are fully protected and treated with complete confidentiality.